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Reefer Madness
DVD/APPROX. 65 MINS/1936/USA UNRATED
DVD/APPROX. 65 MINS/1936/USA UNRATED
6
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French-born director Louis Gasnier came to Hollywood to direct the silent serial classic, The Perils of Pauline. Although Gasnier made 33 silent
feature films, he failed to make the transition to sound cinema except in flittering poverty row exploitation vehicles, of which Reefer Madness
remains his best known. Reefer Madness began as a sensationalist docu-drama sponsored by a Church group about the evils of marijuana
addiction. It was intended to stimulate public outcry against the corruptive weed by playing into every bad stereotype about the pot-crazed dope
fiend uncontrollably driven to rape and, finally, madness. Sampling one joint in this film will inevitably lead a good person to the city mental
institution after descending into inevitable violence. Reefer Madness is hysterically paranoid caricature, secretly wishing to delight in what it sees
as the worst effects of marijuana intoxication – sex, drugs and music.
Reefer Madness would have disappeared into exploitation obscurity was it not for a chance discovery by Keith Stroup. Stroup was the head of
NORML (the National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws) in the early 1970s and was looking for archival footage he could use for
promotional purposes. In the Library of Congress in Washington, DC Stroup discovered Reefer Madness. Viewing it proved so rewarding an
experience that Stroup wanted to share the film with other pot-smokers who would invariably find the film’s now dated paranoid sleaze ridiculously
funny. The film was in the public domain, so Stroup found a print, which he purchased for a little under $300. He organized screenings in the many
cinemas then showing movies at midnight for an audience of usually stoned college students and exploitation fans. These proved so popular that
Stroup screened the film as a fund raiser in his campaign to legalize marijuana across the USA.
Retrospective writings about the “midnight-movie” era regularly reference Reefer Madness as a cult classic alongside such as El Topo or The Rocky
Horror Picture Show. Today, it is to the camp pleasures of the latter that Reefer Madness is being re-packaged and re-marketed, this time by
C20th Fox in a deluxe, computer colorized version which boasts the tagline “special addiction”. The film’s original cautionary tale premise has been
wholly dispensed with and the DVD caters for pot-smokers out for a laugh at the narrow-minded reactionary stupidity which once attended public
fears of drug addiction. It is a classic of dope fiend cinema and here has a lovingly restored transfer, in both brand new colour and original black
and white for the purists, with a decent special effects package including an engagingly humourous commentary track by Mike Nelson, the TV host
of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a bonus short film, Grandpa’s Marijuana Handbook.
With mannered acting (dope addicts moving from reefer to reefer with ease and twitching nervously like speed freaks), the plot of Reefer Madness
is a formulaic depiction of nice, decent teenage boys and girls who turn decadent and lascivious when exposed to pot (presumably without the
Church’s influence to guide them). As absolutely ridiculous as this film is, there is some humour for the pothead in the irony of the film’s anti-drug
stance eroded by the thrill of watching demented, dangerous, sexually excitable behaviour. The film’s joy now is not the stereotypical, reactionary
treatment of pot users, but the increasingly lurid and leering feel to the hip scene and teenage jargon of the time. The film has a guilty fascination
with its jittery, nervous, demented dope addicts that its anti-drug premise cannot eradicate. Unsure of whether to warn against marijuana or
explore the lustful alternative lifestyle the film would otherwise condone, Reefer Madness is little more than a juvenile delinquency second feature
with a drug theme. Indeed, when the film was shown as part of NORML’s campaign raising, it was often screened alongside Confessions of an
Opium Eater.
Reefer Madness has been released previously, but this new Fox version takes care to reward the collector. If you are interested in this midnight
movie curiosity but have never gotten around to taking the trip with it, then this a good DVD release to acquire for your collection of cult movies or
to experience for the first time. However, the appeal of Reefer Madness is ultimately to those who would wish to watch it stoned, as was the
intention of Stroup when he rescued it from archive oblivion. Seen in such a state, it is indeed an amusing and ironic film even though the net
effect is a transitory rather than sustained or memorable high. Still, the sense of madcap glee and lustful abandon is captivating; although the
distance of time has made it more laughable than a genuinely illicit thrill. For its time though, this was quite sleazy, especially considered it was
funded by a Church group. Today the film is a joke because it’s played straight: it’s a cult camp curio.
feature films, he failed to make the transition to sound cinema except in flittering poverty row exploitation vehicles, of which Reefer Madness
remains his best known. Reefer Madness began as a sensationalist docu-drama sponsored by a Church group about the evils of marijuana
addiction. It was intended to stimulate public outcry against the corruptive weed by playing into every bad stereotype about the pot-crazed dope
fiend uncontrollably driven to rape and, finally, madness. Sampling one joint in this film will inevitably lead a good person to the city mental
institution after descending into inevitable violence. Reefer Madness is hysterically paranoid caricature, secretly wishing to delight in what it sees
as the worst effects of marijuana intoxication – sex, drugs and music.
Reefer Madness would have disappeared into exploitation obscurity was it not for a chance discovery by Keith Stroup. Stroup was the head of
NORML (the National Organization for the Repeal of Marijuana Laws) in the early 1970s and was looking for archival footage he could use for
promotional purposes. In the Library of Congress in Washington, DC Stroup discovered Reefer Madness. Viewing it proved so rewarding an
experience that Stroup wanted to share the film with other pot-smokers who would invariably find the film’s now dated paranoid sleaze ridiculously
funny. The film was in the public domain, so Stroup found a print, which he purchased for a little under $300. He organized screenings in the many
cinemas then showing movies at midnight for an audience of usually stoned college students and exploitation fans. These proved so popular that
Stroup screened the film as a fund raiser in his campaign to legalize marijuana across the USA.
Retrospective writings about the “midnight-movie” era regularly reference Reefer Madness as a cult classic alongside such as El Topo or The Rocky
Horror Picture Show. Today, it is to the camp pleasures of the latter that Reefer Madness is being re-packaged and re-marketed, this time by
C20th Fox in a deluxe, computer colorized version which boasts the tagline “special addiction”. The film’s original cautionary tale premise has been
wholly dispensed with and the DVD caters for pot-smokers out for a laugh at the narrow-minded reactionary stupidity which once attended public
fears of drug addiction. It is a classic of dope fiend cinema and here has a lovingly restored transfer, in both brand new colour and original black
and white for the purists, with a decent special effects package including an engagingly humourous commentary track by Mike Nelson, the TV host
of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a bonus short film, Grandpa’s Marijuana Handbook.
With mannered acting (dope addicts moving from reefer to reefer with ease and twitching nervously like speed freaks), the plot of Reefer Madness
is a formulaic depiction of nice, decent teenage boys and girls who turn decadent and lascivious when exposed to pot (presumably without the
Church’s influence to guide them). As absolutely ridiculous as this film is, there is some humour for the pothead in the irony of the film’s anti-drug
stance eroded by the thrill of watching demented, dangerous, sexually excitable behaviour. The film’s joy now is not the stereotypical, reactionary
treatment of pot users, but the increasingly lurid and leering feel to the hip scene and teenage jargon of the time. The film has a guilty fascination
with its jittery, nervous, demented dope addicts that its anti-drug premise cannot eradicate. Unsure of whether to warn against marijuana or
explore the lustful alternative lifestyle the film would otherwise condone, Reefer Madness is little more than a juvenile delinquency second feature
with a drug theme. Indeed, when the film was shown as part of NORML’s campaign raising, it was often screened alongside Confessions of an
Opium Eater.
Reefer Madness has been released previously, but this new Fox version takes care to reward the collector. If you are interested in this midnight
movie curiosity but have never gotten around to taking the trip with it, then this a good DVD release to acquire for your collection of cult movies or
to experience for the first time. However, the appeal of Reefer Madness is ultimately to those who would wish to watch it stoned, as was the
intention of Stroup when he rescued it from archive oblivion. Seen in such a state, it is indeed an amusing and ironic film even though the net
effect is a transitory rather than sustained or memorable high. Still, the sense of madcap glee and lustful abandon is captivating; although the
distance of time has made it more laughable than a genuinely illicit thrill. For its time though, this was quite sleazy, especially considered it was
funded by a Church group. Today the film is a joke because it’s played straight: it’s a cult camp curio.
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